Chapter 9: Plans

Translated by Dandan and Edited by Hippo! Woot woot editor is back!!! ❤ 

In the countryside, cattle are an indispensable animal. For whoever who owns a cow, it is sure that life will not be too bad for them. As for horses, only the really big families can afford to own them. Before, when Zhang Yangfan that scum and Jiang Baining got married, he was riding a horse; the horse was still borrowed. Even though Zhang House in Huaping Village is a wealthy family but even his family has no horses. He could just imagine how expensive horses are.

However, the Zhang family has a cow.

As soon as Luo Fei thought of Jiang Baining with that smug demeanor, it annoyed him. Isn’t it just a cow?!

He also wants to buy a cow! Buy a better cow than the Zhang family’s! He is not the kind of person who likes to one-up everyone, but he must compete with the enemy! Because of Zhang Yangfan and Jiang Baining, people often point at him. Whatever it is, that being said, he must fight back!

Luo Fei stood at the door of the Xi house: “Xi Yanqing, are you there?”

Xi Yanqing said: “Here, the door is not locked, come in yourself!”

When Luo Fei pushed the door, the door opened, but the door of the Xi house was slightly heavy, so the first time he pushed, he was not able to open it all the way.

It was dark and Xi Yanqing had lit up oil lamps. When Luo Fei went in, he saw him holding a very small needle in the light, clumsily staring at the clothes in confusion.

“Is there something you need?” Xi Yanqing raised his head.

“What are you doing?” Luo Fei casually sat down, “Sewing clothes?”

 

“En, I scratched it against something and it ripped while working during the day. It doesn’t seem like it will be okay to work in without patching it up. It is at the knee area, usually, it would be okay, but when you squat and stand, the hole will get bigger and bigger.

“Hey, let me ask you, do you know how much you need to buy a cow?” Luo Fei finished saying as he watched Xi Yanqing mess with the clothes again.

“Around five liang of silver, for a normal farming cow.”

“Five liang?” So chea—no! It is so expensive! His family of six spends a maximum of five liang a year. If no troubles occurred, it would suffice to save some and just use three liang of silver. Five liang! Doesn’t it take two years of saving without food and drink?!

“A calf may be cheaper, a better one sells for about four liang of silver, and worse ones sell for maybe about three liang of silver. But if it is a female, it is more expensive, and a breeder cow is also expensive. Why do you ask?”

“I want to buy a cow. Hey, do you know? That Jiang Baining, who stole my original body’s place, I met him when I went to the Han family to borrow their oxcart. He has a cow in his household and he won’t let other people not know about it!” he paused, “But five liang is really too expensive.” He didn’t know if even selling himself would be enough to gather five liang. This was a horrible situation! A cow is so expensive, that was why not every household had one!

“If you make enough money, you can buy it. We are still young and can plan ahead slowly. Well, we have greater knowledge than those ancient people, so  there is always an opportunity for us to innovate.”

“You are right, but where can I start?” He also knows that making money is important, but how can he earn some? There is no way to receive advertisement deals or make any films here. (Remember LF went to film/acting school so that’s how he knows how to make money.)

What Luo Fei thought for a long time but could only think of going up the mountains to plough more land and increase the food production at home. But with his small arms and small legs, it is estimated that even if he ploughs until next year, he still wouldn’t be able to even plough one mu of land (Around 0.0667 hectares), which is definitely too bitter.

Other people who transmigrate and can just easily live and earn money with their skills. How come when it came to him he couldn’t? This is so unreasonable!

Xi Yanqing watched Luo Fei who was deep in thought and smiled: “You want a cow that much?”

“Ah.” Luo Fei squinted at Xi Yanqing. “You don’t want one? If we really must work, it’s better to have a cow. If there is no cow, the cow’s work will have to be done by us.” Thinking about it, I am already beginning to have back pain! Although he is a ger, and his body is not as strong, he still has to help out whenever they need help. It is impossible to really wait for a pie to fall from the sky. So they still really have to have a cow.

“Can you cook?” Xi Yanqing thought and said, “If you can cook, then in the future I can do the work in the field.”

“… Does cooking instant noodles count?” Luo Fei asked.

“Do you think instant noodles are available for purchase anywhere here?” Xi Yan took a long sigh. “It seems like we can’t expect to eat anything delicious for now.”

“Right, it’s not like we even have the ingredients to make tasty things anyway. Every day, if not porridge then a steamed bun, or a big pancake, or confused porridge, and no flavor whatsoever passes in my mouth (the literal idiom is something weird like birds falling from his mouth or something lol), and I still don’t know when I can eat a piece of meat.” Luo Fei licked his lips and recalled the delicious food he had eaten in the past. He only felt a lot of saliva in his mouth. Every day he had had a meal at school and couldn’t even finish it. Thinking about it, it was really a waste.

“In fact, count us as being at a lucky time. This year, a disaster has occurred. I am afraid that there are many people who are starving to death. At least we are not too hungry at the moment.” As Xi Yanqing spoke, he suddenly threw the trousers to the side unhappily and didn’t sew. He had sewed until his eyes were tired and still couldn’t sew them properly – he had thought he had sewed it together, but the result was that the front and back of the trouser leg were sewn together! Now his leg couldn’t even go into the pants!

“Tsk tsk tsk, this is what the high-level student of the Agricultural University has learned? Did you even buy the books after you were accepted?” Luo Fei swung his legs. “Do you want this young master to help you out?”

“You know how to do needlework?”

“I have to be. My grandma is a famous folk artist. I am very skilled at embroidery. She always wanted to have my mother learn, my mom didn’t care for sewing, but I was very interested in various needlework when I was young. Previously I still wanted to learn design, as a result of my grandma’s influence.” Luo Fei reached out, “Give me your pants.”

Xi Yanqing listened to Luo Fei’s words and it didn’t seem like he was just boasting. He gave him the pants. When Luo Fei saw it, he immediately dismantled the messy parts Xi Yanqing had sewed. After dismantling, he skillfully threaded the needle, knotted it, and began to sew seriously. His technique was very fast and very skilled. His long, white fingers held the needle, skillfully threading it through the fabric, and sewed the trousers in a short time, and unlike Xi Yanqing whose seams were messy, his seams were smoothly sewed and solid. Although it was still possible to see traces of the seams, it was not obvious at all.
“Wow, so powerful.” Xi Yanqing took the pants, quite surprised to say.

“Of course, didn’t you think about whose grandson I am. I really wasn’t just tooting my horn at you. When I was at school, our classmates always bought clothes and pants and would always come to trouble me to do some work on it… Ah! I can embroider!” Luo Fei was so excited it was like he had discovered a new continent, and stood up with a “ceng”. He looked at Xi Yanqing with a little excitement and couldn’t help but pace around on the ground. “I can sew and sell purses! I forgot about this!”

“Who would you sell to in this poor place?” Xi Yanqing quietly asked.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Pretty good.” I’ll just let you be happy for a little.

“I won’t talk to you anymore, I have to go back and think about it, what to sell and so that we can buy a cow at the fastest speed!” As Luo Fei spoke, his person had already begun going out, and with excitement, his pace had become much lighter.

“Wait for me! It’s too late, I will send you back!”

Xi Yanqing closed the door and quickly followed Luo Fei. Luo Fei did not resist.

It was also a coincidence that when Luo Fei just arrived home, his mother and sister in the house were also doing needlework there. To be precise, Luo Ru was while Li Yuehua pointed at it, instructing her. But Luo Ru only sewed a bit before getting annoyed.

“Aiya, mom, I can’t sew it properly! Can’t we just not sew anymore?!”

“Of course not!” Li Yuehua said steely, “Think, a girl is the one in charge of needlework in every family and yours is not even as good as your brother’s, that has to be a joke! Practice more, more practice. Practicing more and you will be able to do it. The clothes you wear when you marry later will be like a beggar’s. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“I don’t want to, but I just can’t sew it well. What can I do about it? You must have passed this skill to him when you gave birth to my second brother. When it came to me, not one bit was left!” She quickly shut her mouth when she heard noise, saw Luo Fei, and quickly acted spoiled and said: “Second brother, you came back at just the right time, please help me .”

“Sure!” Luo Fei was in a good mood, to ask him to help sew something, even to sew a whole new set of clothes, he wasn’t afraid to agree.

“Sure what sure?! The wedding dress has to be sewn by yourself! Erbao you can’t help Sanbao.” Li Yuehua looked at her daughter sternly. “Tonight, when you finish sewing this sleeve, is when you sleep, do you understand?”

“I know, mother.” Luo Ru frowned until her mouth was so curved until a soy sauce bottle could hang from it. She looked at Luo Fei pitifully.

“How about this, Sanbao, when you finish sewing the clothes, Er-ge promises to embroider the best designs onto it! If you want it then you must properly sew!”

“Really, Ge? Before you said that you have no time.”

“Previously it was before, now it is the present. You can be rest assured that what Er-ge agreed to do, he will do it.”

　　
“Agreed! Then I will sew it quickly!” Luo Ru bowed her head and began working on the wedding dress with renewed vigor again.　

　
Li Yuehua glanced at her hard-working daughter, and then waved at Xi Yanqing: “Xi Yu, come, your uncle and I are currently searching a good day for you. Today I went to go ask for the good days for marriage and I asked for all the good days in these three months, you can come see which one is good.”

Luo Fei heard the words and immediately glared at Xi Yanqing: not allowed to pick a day that’s too close!

Xi Yanqing saw him and said to Li Yuehua: “Auntie, according to me, it is better to pick a day with warmer weather. Erbao told me that his wedding dress is not very thick, and if we marry soon, it will be too cold. I am not willing to let him freeze, so you see…”
　　
Luo Fei let out a relieved sigh, this Xi Yanqing, this time his brain worked fast enough!

He was very confidently able to go back to his room to get the sewing kit, and see if he could make something small.

But he didn’t know that once he entered, Xi Yanqing sighed for a long time, and lowered his voice very helplessly said: “Uncle, aunt, I wanted to choose the most recent day. You two also know that I was alone out there for many years always thinking about Erbao. But he does not agree, he wants me to drag on for a little longer, can you see if you can think of a way…”

 

[T/N: LOL Luo Fei you thought!]

“Think of a way?” Li Yuehua said very cheerfully, “Leave it to me!”
　　
“Do not worry, if nothing else I can just give him another good beating.” Luo Tian said, “That little rascal, born into blessings, does not know the blessings but rather the stick!”

“Nonono, if you beat him again, my heart will hurt. In addition, I want to go to the town to look at some wares, I’d like if Ji-Ge could help me pick and choose, is he here? I will ask if he can go.”

“He’s here. But what do you need to buy? If he can’t go, just let your uncle go with you,” Li Yuehua said.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, having Ji-ge go with me will be all right. The main thing is to look at the furniture sold in the store in town. When we come back, I want to build some good looking ones for Er-bao.”

“This child, you really have such a good heart.” Li Yuehua was very happy, and whispered: “Do not worry, I will pick the most recent day!”

Xi Yanqing gave Li Yuehua a bow, and then went to open the curtain to see what Luo Fei was doing there.

Luo Fei took out the sewing kit. When he saw the color of the thread and less than three pieces of in it, he felt particularly bad. This was just… no way to start this!

Xi Yanqing lightly coughed: “Erbao, I am leaving first.”

Luo Fei did not even lift his head: “Go, go.” After a while, looked up and rubbed his neck, and saw that Xi Yanqing had not gone yet: “What are you doing? Is there something else?”

Xi Yanqing asked a question casually: “Do you think that a flower patterned (I think this means a regular white cow with black splotches) ox is good-looking or a yellow ox is good?”

Luo Fei pondered for a while and said, “A yellow ox?”

Xi Yanqing nodded and said: “Well, I think so too.”

Having finished, he put down the curtain and left.

---

Prev | ToC | Next